An Amazing Village Designed Just For People With Dementia

In the Netherlands, a radical idea is being tested: Self-contained “villages” where people with dementia shop, cook, and live together—safely.

In the small town of Weesp, in Holland a dementia-focused living center called De Hogeweyk, aka Dementiavillage, is serving as a model for the rest of the world.

The secure compound contains apartments and buildings, closed to the outside world with gates and security fences. But, inside, it is its own self-contained village: Restaurants, cafes, a supermarket, gardens, a pedestrian boulevard, and more.